


Take Us Back

by kaylee_wolf



Category: The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: Clouis, F/M, Post-Game(s), The walking dead game - Freeform, but they also need to hurt a little bit, i just want good things for my kiddos, just a teeny tiny bit, post apocalyptic road trips are fun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-23
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:28:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24877723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaylee_wolf/pseuds/kaylee_wolf
Summary: A caravan passing through brings word to the Ericson kids of a thriving settlement in Savannah, Georgia. It brings up a point of setting up trade with the community. Plus puppies and sadness.
Relationships: Clementine & Lee Everett, Clementine/Louis (Walking Dead: Done Running)
Kudos: 24





	Take Us Back

**Author's Note:**

> i... just wanted to write something where there's a puppy and roadtrip sadness

It was, surprisingly, Mitch who brought up the idea of taking a trip down there, just a small group. The last caravan _did_ bring them the word of a thriving settlement down near Savannah, so it was probably something of a good idea to check it out and see if they could get... something going with a trade route.

The bomb extraordinaire thought that they might be able to get some supplies that would help fortify the school even more. Like stuff for bombs.

But he had suggested Clementine go and it was hard for her to say no. Even if there were bad memories of the place, she wanted to see what had happened. But she remembered the exact place where Lee was and she wasn't sure if his body, well skeleton at this point, would still be there sixteen years into the apocalypse.

Especially if there was a settlement making its mark there.

But she also remembered how long it took her to go up north with Christa and Omid and wanted to opt-out on the months-long trip, including hiding out from walkers and finding food. Honestly, staying away from such a long trip was tempting as hell, but once Louis said he was going, she couldn't let him go without her.

They left with a few weeks worth of food, some spare supplies to try and trade, and two horses to split the heavy load between. Clementine pretty much did forget that they had horses. It would be faster to get there.

"Why did you say you would go?" she asked Louis, who was busy trying to get comfortable in the saddle.

He looked over with a grin. "So you would, darling."

"And why would that look like a good idea?"

He didn't hesitate in answering. "Well, gorgeous, I wanted to go on a field trip."

Seventeen days later, they actually found themselves at the entrance of a settlement. There were welcomed inside almost immediately after they announced they had supplies to trade. And the inside was... surprisingly peaceful. It reminded her of Richmond, after the revolution and all that had settled down.

Children were running around, they had a _fucking_ pasture from the old Reynolds Square her parents took her to, which was cool for their horses. But something that made it worse was... Clementine recognized the place she dragged Lee into all that time ago. She was surprised she remembered the layout of the city after only seeing it at eight years old and full of walkers instead of people.

When she wandered off, Louis followed relatively quickly. The touch on her shoulder caused her to snap out of it for a moment. "You okay?"

"I... this is where... I shot Lee. I just... haven't been here in a while."

His hand reached for hers, fingers lacing together. "Do you wanna give me a tour to take your mind off things?"

"That's not a bad idea," she said with a gentle smile.

They kept their trading supplies on their backs as they wandered around. She pointed out the Marsh House and started telling him the story behind that place, which turned sad and a little awkward, like her mentioning of Mark did during their first card game.

"You mean... you literally ignored stranger danger like twenty times during the _apocalypse_?"

She laughed along with him, his grin was contagious. "I was only eight, you dork."

"But still... stranger danger?" he asked, squeezing her hand gently.

She squeezed back, finally spotting what looked like a trading area. She dragged him over to see what other people had and what they would give up for their stuff. Some people had bullets, which was the best part. They smoked after you shot them, but they were still brand new bullets.

Finally, she saw something that almost caused her to stop dead in her tracks. She'd seen something like that once or twice while driving through Savannah with her parents. A box of puppies.

Not that Louis was any better. He ran off to start fawning over them, which prompted Clementine having to remind him that they had limited space with the horses and all. "Lou, we can't take any of them."

"Oh, come on, they're so cute!"

She crossed her arms with a gentle smile. "We're on _horses_ , Lou. As nice as it would be to have another dog running around, we don't have room."

"But look!" he exclaimed, picking one up one of them. "Baby Rosie."

It was so tempting after seeing the tiny thing that did, admittedly, look like Rosie. "Lou, we're on horses."

"Okay, you think about it and I sneak the puppy along anyway."

She rolled her eyes but still laughed. "I... fine, we'll talk about it after dinner."

"Wait, what?"

Her smile spread a bit further as the confusion turned to almost pure joy. "We're staying for tonight anyway, so we can talk about it _after_ dinner. Let's just get our bearings first."

Once dinner was eaten, Clementine ended up wandering back to the last place in Savannah she was before she met up with Christa and Omid. The place where she _killed_ Lee. Louis asked if she wanted to go in and see if there was anything there, but they were stopped by a passerby who inquired about what they were looking for.

"The bodies were cleared out of here about a year ago. Only things we found were skeletons."

Clementine felt the tears burn at the back of her eyes. "Where... where did the bodies go?"

"Mass burial. Why?"

She held back the tears with all her might. But it was hard to keep them at bay. "I knew one of the men in there."

"Oh... I'm sorry."

Then the passerby scurried away like they had seen a ghost. And there were tears after that. The realization that Clementine never got to say a true and honest goodbye to her first mentor of the apocalypse. Just the thought was enough to upset her, but realizing she only had the chance to do it in her head made it _so much worse_.

That night they sat in a room in the Marsh House, the pup they found still in hand for whatever reason. Nobody stopped them bringing the thing inside, so the two assumed it was okay. It was pretty calm and well-behaved if a bit mouthy.

"So, darling, what do you say to having this little guy join us?" Louis asked as the pup launched itself at his hand to bite at it.

She scratched its ears and sighed, "Maybe if you figure out how to keep him on the horse."

"That's it?"

Clementine smiled, "Yep. I... miss having a dog. It was nice."

"Well, having you around is nicer, gorgeous."

The slept soundly that night, the pup wiggling its way between them, and woke up to peace. Which typically didn't happen in new places. Last time she fell asleep in a new place a revolution started.

So they ate, finished trading their supplies off, and gathered their horses to go. The next seventeen days passed by quickly, mostly because the biggest herd had kept going north past Richmond so they didn't lose their way as often. They never established formal trading routes but did pass on information of the river near the school in case caravans passed by.

There would be something that came of it, they hoped.

Connection to the outside world would be wonderful, as long as it didn't bring the Delta back. But that was to worry about later. After all, life was in the moment and that wasn't a problem yet.


End file.
